Killer whales risk disappearing for 40 years old pollutants

Banned in almost all the world, PCBs (Polychlorobiphenyls) remain in the environment and are assimilated by cetaceans, compromising their reproductive capacity. Over half of the populations are in danger.

OTHER that killer whales, the poison that threatened us we produced and released into the environment in industrial quantities almost a century ago. And even though it has been banned for about 40 years, it is still present and continues to be a risk to the survival of these cetaceans. The PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls) are toxic substances forbidden in almost all over the world for decades, but a recent study published in Science showed that they are still at danger levels, the killer whale tissues.

Killer whales are at the top of the pyramid of the food chain, which is why their body tends to absorb a large quantity of contaminants from prey. But the investigation of an international team led by the Danish Jean-Pierre Desforges , of the Department of Biosciences of the Arctic Research Center of the Arhus Universitet, analyzing the tissues of different populations all over the world, has found values ​​up to 1,300 milligrams per kilo in their tissues. They are among the most contaminated in the world by this substance which has deleterious effects on the immune system and on the ability to reproduce.